Thursday, October 08, 2009

Over the past few years, Bob has written extensively on the miserable failure that is MassHealth. As he's documented time and again, mandating both coverage and community rating lead directly to outrageous premium levels.

But of course, Bob has an axe to grind, so his message must be meaningless, right?

Wendy Button is a Democrat activist who has, it seems, "seen the light." She echoes the clarion call for reform, but with a decidedly different twist:

"If Congress and the president want to fix health care, then it is time to start over. They need to look at what's worked and what has failed in Massachusetts. They are going to have to actually take former Gov. Sarah Palin's advice and "look north to the future."

"Start over." Not a bad idea - in fact, that's one with which we'd agree - but hardly what one would expect from someone so close to the campaigns of Obama and Edwards (not to mention the authoress of HillaryCare).

She continues:

"A rushed bill will have consequences. Reforms will not be cheap and some people may be priced out."

A point we've been making here for a number of years. Now, just because something "doesn't come cheap" doesn't automatically mean that it's not worth doing. But in the calculus of that undertaking, one would be wise to draw, and learn, from others' similar experiences and efforts. We've maintained all along that experimenting at the state level was a viable and desirable strategy: learning what works - and what doesn't - in 50 smaller labs is preferable to the potentially disastrous consequences that could come from one encompassing the entire nation.

But Ms Button isn't through:

"How could all of these weeks and months go by and no one is examining and talking about what has worked and what hasn't worked in Massachusetts?"

Well, as we've noted, some of us have been jumping up and down, pointing at MassHealth as the failed experiment that it is. Sadly, Ms Button doesn't appear to be an IB reader.

Or is she, perhaps, a closet one?

"I'm a critic because what Washington is talking about doing has made health insurance unaffordable in Massachusetts."

Over the past few years, Bob has written extensively on the miserable failure that is MassHealth. As he's documented time and again, mandating both coverage and community rating lead directly to outrageous premium levels.

But of course, Bob has an axe to grind, so his message must be meaningless, right?

Wendy Button is a Democrat activist who has, it seems, "seen the light." She echoes the clarion call for reform, but with a decidedly different twist:

"If Congress and the president want to fix health care, then it is time to start over. They need to look at what's worked and what has failed in Massachusetts. They are going to have to actually take former Gov. Sarah Palin's advice and "look north to the future."

"Start over." Not a bad idea - in fact, that's one with which we'd agree - but hardly what one would expect from someone so close to the campaigns of Obama and Edwards (not to mention the authoress of HillaryCare).

She continues:

"A rushed bill will have consequences. Reforms will not be cheap and some people may be priced out."

A point we've been making here for a number of years. Now, just because something "doesn't come cheap" doesn't automatically mean that it's not worth doing. But in the calculus of that undertaking, one would be wise to draw, and learn, from others' similar experiences and efforts. We've maintained all along that experimenting at the state level was a viable and desirable strategy: learning what works - and what doesn't - in 50 smaller labs is preferable to the potentially disastrous consequences that could come from one encompassing the entire nation.

But Ms Button isn't through:

"How could all of these weeks and months go by and no one is examining and talking about what has worked and what hasn't worked in Massachusetts?"

Well, as we've noted, some of us have been jumping up and down, pointing at MassHealth as the failed experiment that it is. Sadly, Ms Button doesn't appear to be an IB reader.

Or is she, perhaps, a closet one?

"I'm a critic because what Washington is talking about doing has made health insurance unaffordable in Massachusetts."